An experiment was conducted with the objective of evaluating the resistance of different dripper designs for biological clogging. Five kinds of drippers: Streamline 100, Ram 17L, Dripline 2000, Tiran 17 and Typhoon 20 were evaluated. The statistical design used was a completely randomized block in a split plot, composed of 5 treatments (dripper model) in the main plot and operation time (9 levels) in the sub plot with 4 replications. A regular water source for irrigation equipment was used with some bacterial genus and presenting a bacterial population of about 50,000 UFC mL-1. In every 240 h the flow of each emitter was measured. The total operation time was 2160 h. The results showed that there were differences among the emitters. Ram and Streamline models presented the smaller flow rate reduction while Tiran and Dripline models presented the higher flow rate reduction.
bacteria; clogging; drip irrigation
